Dr. P. Joan Poor named dean of College of Arts & Sciences

June 2, 2010

BEMIDJI, Minn. (June 2, 2010) — Bemidji State University Interim Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Nancy Erickson announced that Dr. P. Joan Poor has been named dean of the University’s College of Arts and Sciences.

“Dr. Poor was very taken with our signature themes,” Erickson said. “Her educational background and her professional interests in those themes will serve her well in her important role as the dean. In addition to her educational background, Poor brings experience with planning. Additionally, she has participated in national programs to continue her development within the field of higher education, all of which will stand her in good stead as she begins her tenure at BSU.”

“The strength of the faculty and their dedication to the students is what drew me to Bemidji State University,” Poor said. “The BSU community welcomed me and made me feel at home throughout the interview process. The University’s signature themes of international and multicultural understanding, civic engagement and environmental stewardship are as important to me as they are to the BSU community.

“It is an honor to join the faculty in developing BSU students with the insight and understanding needed succeed as leaders in the 21st century,” Poor said. “I look forward to serving the BSU community in a new era and moving back to a part of the country that my family and I consider home.”

Poor joins the Bemidji State University administration after spending nine years at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. She joined the St. Mary’s faculty in 2001 as an assistant professor of economics. She was promoted to associate professor of economics in 2006, at which time she also was named assistant to the president for planning and legislative affairs. Poor also served as the coordinator of St. Mary’s environmental studies program from 2002-07.

In 2007, Poor was an invited faculty fellow at the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies in Oxford and in 2008 she was awarded the Hobart Houghton Fellowship at Rhodes University in South Africa.

Prior to her tenure at St. Mary’s, Poor was a visiting professor of economics at Rochester Institute of Technology; a research assistant professor in resource economics and policy at the University of Maine; and a post-doctoral research assistant and graduate research assistant at the University of Nebraska. She also served as a senior economic analyst for international agriculture at Wharton Econometric Forecasting Associates and was manager of corporate affairs for WIK Associates, Inc., Environmental Consultants.

Poor also worked for the Manitoba Provincial Government as a land research analyst, as a grain inspection assistant for the Canadian Grain Commission and was a research assistant in the Department of Regional Development for the Canadian government in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

She has written more than a dozen peer-reviewed journal articles and many other published articles using non-market valuation methods to value environmental and cultural heritage resources. Poor also has given more than three dozen presentations as a guest lecturer or at local government proceedings, professional conferences, workshops and community organizations.

Poor earned her bachelor of science degree in agriculture and master’s in natural resource management from the University of Manitoba and her doctorate in resource and environmental economics from the University of Nebraska. She is also a graduate of the Management Development Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the HERS Institute for Women in Higher Education Administration from Wellesley College.

Poor’s appointment begins in July. She succeeds Dr. Elizabeth Dunn, who had been the interim dean of the college since Sept. 2008.